The most endearing, longstanding and enduring projects recognise how important it is to retain the history of something, while also bringing it into the 21st century.  

If you want to define this idea with a specific example, take a look at the Vale Mill.  

Pictured: An old image of the Vale Mill on display inside it.

The original Vale Mill was built in the 1700s out of wood. Nearly a century later it was knocked down and replaced with classic Guernsey granite and stood for more than 100 years, operating as a flour windmill.   

The iconic building then went the way of numerous island properties; moulded and brutalised by the Germans.  

During World War II the Nazis took the top off and added three floors of concrete to create a watchtower. To ‘camouflage’ the Mill it was coated in granite, but to the trained eye the utilitarian straight blockwork remains easy to pick out compared to the more hokey, yet uniquely Guernsey, method of layering granite.   

The profile of the Mill had been forever changed.  

The States of Guernsey did authorise work to pull down the concrete but that was adandonedafter only one floor.  

The Mill was then left for decades to decay, water ingress pulling down patches of roof while the unusual nature of the building kept developers at bay. 

This was until 2008, when Richard Ridout and the late Roger Perrot bought the building.   

The building remained an unknown even then, when it came under Richard’s expert eye.  

Without erecting scaffolding and digging into the foundations, the true extent of what the Germans had done remained a secret. It was un-liveable and the future remained unclear. Then the wheels began to turn.  

In 2020 planning permission was granted to turn the Mill into a habitable building, build a separate ‘box’ next to the Vale Mill Quarry, and link the two via a tunnel. Flash forward to 2024 and the scaffolding that has cloaked the Mill for a year has started to come down, I could see the freshly pointed walls from my garden in the Vale, and I just had to get a closer look.  

So, I went to meet James Ridout, Richard’s son and Director of Wheeler Developments.  

James is leading the development of the Vale Mill and surrounding area, and he took time out of his day to show me around and test my nerve for heights.   

“[The future was unclear because] people would say, ‘what is the amount of work that needs to be done to the Mill?’ Nobody could say what would be involved until you've got the scaffold up... if we get the Mill done, that's all the unknowns completed.  

“There have been various purchases of other land, including a quarry and a field... it has been a very long process to get here.  

“The idea now is to put a tunnel from underneath the Mill to the box, so that you won't be coming through the front door.  

“The only slight issue is... the Germans built two meters of reinforced concrete between here and the basement, which we need to cut through.”  

James and his team uncovered these thick concrete walls that had been installed by the Germans, which are 3ft deep in some areas. Plans are being drawn up to understand how best to cut through, if a tunnel is still going to be dug through to a future property by the quarry edge.  

It’s just one more step on a long path to the complete renovation of the Vale Mill.  

Pictured: James Ridout.

The most recent visible change has been the removal of the scaffolding that has cloaked the building since early 2023. This scaffolding allowed Granite Le Pelly to undertake a mammoth repointing job.  

"I spoke to Granite Le Pelley and was originally told they were too busy, but then the States of Guernsey stopped all seawall work for the Island Games.   

“I got a phonecall to say I could be given ten stonemasons.”  

The work took more than 120-man hours and required a pointing station to be hung from the side of the mill.  

James is currently waiting for the new staircases to be delivered, and much like everything else in the Mill they’vebeen built bespoke due to the curvature of the walls.   

Walking around the Mill and listening to James talk it’s clear that the project has taken on a life of its own. The pride in the work is palpable, in fact, James has shown so many people around the Mill that he’s had boards made up with pictures of the work as it has gone on. Proof of the blood, sweat, and tears that have gone into turning a forgotten monument into something habitable.  

He takes me up the Mill, each floor clean and ready to be turned into a liveable space. The canvas is ready and yetechoes of the past remain. In the upper floors the concrete walls are adorned with numbers and images, identifying landmarks the Germans used while scanning the horizon.  

"We're going to get it all repainted by a local expert,” he says. “This was all painted by the Germans... and if you look out the window directly in front of you it is exactly what is drawn on [the wall].”  

What happens now?  

"As far as the Mill is concerned externally, it's finished... internally, it's structurally finished,” James tells me as we conclude our tour.   

Pictured: The Vale Mill.

"It's at a stage where planning consider it as habitable. Outside, we're going to get all the scaffolding down and then there's about a meter and a half of pointing left to finish.  

"We'll then get the handrails back up to the door. Then we can take a breather.”  

He tells me that the dream would be to see the entire project completed, including the build of the ‘box’, a sleek property built into the wall of the adjacent quarry.  

"I'd love that the box is developed inside the quarry... the property deserves that.  

"A brand new, ultra-modern, box overhanging a quarry... attached to a very old Mill.”  

The final leg of my tour took me up two flights of metal handholds buried into the concrete by the Germans, through a hatch in the ceiling and onto the roof. On what I had thought was a still day, up here, the wind kept me on my knees and my heart was in my mouth.  

I could see my house, I could see France, I could see from St Sampsons to Torteval.  

The island of Guernsey stretched out before my eyes, and I could see why James loves this place.  

I could see why it was worth saving. 

Pictured top: The view from the top of the Vale Mill.

This article first appeared in CONNECT, Express' sister publication. 

The latest edition of CONNECT can be read HERE.